The Illusion of Choice

“I voted”. I saw that update coming up a lot the other day on Facebook at election day, neatly put on a red/blue/white button. What is the underlying message of someone who posts that? To show that one is an upstanding American Citizen doing the “right thing” by executing one’s right to vote? To feel good about oneself? To entice others to vote?

What strikes me as curious is that most of the people who had the “I voted” update never really post anything relevant to what deeper issues this country and the world faces in order to help spread awareness and understanding which could actually result in true change. Just this one day, all of a sudden: “I voted”. Voted what? who? why? Of course I’m not implying that Facebook posts and updates are a real life reflection of what people do or don’t do, but it still is an interesting observation. I’m also not saying that people don’t have the right intention. But as the saying goes, “the path to hell is paved with good intentions”. In a ponerized society with a corrupt political system, good intention, hope and voting don’t result in positive change, but merely wishful thinking and denial.

Obama’s election in 2008 should have taught that lesson, but many people still seem to be mesmerized and hypnotized by his persona, hype and slogans that they can’t see him for who he is: a corporate puppet and just as big of a liar as his predecessor, if not worse. The last two years speak for themselves as he supports the same agendas as Bush, most of all the phony war on terror. How can it be that the masses are so easily duped? It didn’t come as a surprise as I wrote in my article two years ago when he got “elected”: The men behind Barack Obama: Hope and Reality

“President Obama does one thing, and Brand Obama gets you to believe another. This is the essence of successful advertising – you buy or do what the advertiser wants, because of how they make you feel. He’s a marketing dream, but like Calvin Klein or Benetton, he is a brand that promises something special, something exciting almost risqué, as if he might be radical. As if he might enact change. He makes people feel good, he’s a postmodern man with no political baggage, and all that’s fake.”
– John Pilger

In regards to the latest election there is something else I noticed. I’ve seen more posts on Facebook about Prop.19 to legalize Marijuana (or not) here in California in the last days than posts on the anniversary of 9/11 to expose the biggest lie of the new millennium. A lie that has cost more lives and affects the world and us more than the issue about pot being legal or not. I’m not against pot being legalized, but it is interesting to see where people’s attention and focus is.

So some of you have voted. May I ask you what you expected by casting your vote, besides focusing on propositions? That your favorite party gets more seats in the senate/house? Which side did you choose: left, right, blue or red or maybe some “independent” liberal party? What do you expect is going to change by casting your vote once or every two and four years?

Let me ask another way. What do you do the rest of the year? Where do you get your information from? How do you educate yourself about what is going on? What are you telling or would you tell your children and kids in general? What do you speak out about, when are you silent, what do you ignore? Do you really know who and what you support by voting? Do you question what you are being told, what you have learned in school and what society, official culture, government and the mainstream media is trying to make you believe?

Just some questions and food for thought. Questions I ask myself all the time. I’m not saying that any of you are not doing their best in their own ways and lives to make this world a better place. Most people’s intention and heart is in the right place, but maybe there is more to consider, something we haven’t honestly looked at?

“The American left is a phantom. It is conjured up by the right-wing to tag Barack Obama as a socialist and used by the liberal class to justify its complacency and lethargy. It diverts attention from corporate power. It perpetuates the myth of a democratic system that is influenced by the votes of citizens, political platforms and the work of legislators. It keeps the world neatly divided into a left and a right. The phantom left functions as a convenient scapegoat. The right-wing blames it for moral degeneration and fiscal chaos. The liberal class uses it to call for ‘moderation.’ The corporations that control mass communications conjure up the phantom of a left. They blame the phantom for our debacle. And they get us to speak in absurdities.” – Chris Hedges

There are no free elections in this country. There hasn’t been in a long time. The Voting System is a fraud sold to the public to give them the illusion of choice. The same goes for the two-party set-up. Democrats and Republicans. Back and forth. Two sides of the same coin. Despite popular belief we actually don’t live in a democracy anymore. People are so caught up in this left/right tunnel vision that they don’t see how they’re being duped and played with.

Brent Kopenhaver Jr. also gives insight in his article “Your Vote Doesn’t count“, addressing some major issues and pointing out:

“Elections are nonsense. Not only are they nonsense – they serve to maintain an illusion that we still live in a free, democratic society.”

The political system is an illusion to keep people in bondage. Most people fight to defend the very beliefs which are established by the controllers to keep them enslaved, just like Morpheus said in “The Matrix”:

“You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it“

What I hear at times when I bring up the issue of control and manipulation is: “But I’m not enslaved, I’m free and can do what I want. That’s the beauty of this great land of freedom!” Enslavement in this day and age is not by force or martial law. It’s by the control of consciousness, by implementing beliefs and desires, forming your mind and behaviors to act and do a certain way, making you believe you are “free” and essentially keeping you complacent and distracted from Truth and the real issues this world faces. It certainly is not man-made Global Warming (one of those implemented beliefs to control/distract the masses) which so many Liberals like to focus on these days. Being “environmental conscious”, “green”, striving towards self-sustainability, permaculture, recycling, composting, driving a “Hybrid” car or planting veggies is not enough if we want true change. There are more pressing issues that cry for our attention and awareness.

Sometimes when I mention these points I’m being called a “conspiracy nut” and ridiculed by the ones who have “faith” in the system and believe themselves to be aware and conscious “good Americans” because they act with good intention and “love” when they cast their vote. However, there is no Love where there is no Truth. There is also no Love where there is Wishful Thinking. Love comes from Knowledge and Understanding, to see the world as it is and to see oneself as one is, not as one likes it to be.

“Give these people a voting day every year, so they have the illusion of meaningless choice. Meaningless choice, so we go like slaves and say “I voted”. The limits of debate in this country are established before the debate even begins and everyone else is marginalized and made to be seen as “communists” or some sort of disloyal person…and now it’s conspiracy [theorists]. You see they made that something that shouldn’t be even entertained for a minute that powerful people might get together and have a plan. Doesn’t happen. You’re a nut case! You’re a conspiracy buff!”- Geroge Carlin

The illusion of National Identification and Patriotism is also something that many people are chained to. As Krishnamurti said “Patriotism is a Disease”. It keeps us separated just like religious identification and belief. The leaders of this country and the world couldn’t care less about America and other nations. These beliefs are just part of the circus show to keep people confined. What rules the world are Transnational Corporations and other interests. Wars are also not fought for National Securities or Patriotism, but the lie of “Patriotism” (with its emotional attachment of “Pride”) is being sold to the masses to follow without questioning.

“Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.” – Arundhati Roy

There is much information available to show the truth in these matters that need to be exposed before anything will change. Everything else is justre-arranging the surface or like staring at the shadows on the wall in Plato’s allegory of The Cave.

Be it the futility of voting, corporate take-over (also called Fascism), the 9/11 inside Job, Israel’s influence on America’s politic and Zionism in general, especially how it affects the Media, The Global Warming Agenda and the most underestimated topic of all: Psychopathy in Power and Political Ponerology. Political figures and even every day people who have no conscience (by birth, not through upbringing or conditioning) and who do not feel or think like me or you do, no feelings for empathy, compassion, love or remorse. However, they can pretend and act “as IF”. The effects of Psychopathy on Society and the world is underrated and hardly understood, mostly even ignored because people want to believe in the “good” of all people. After all, “we’re all one and we just need to recognize that and focus on “love” “, as it is proclaimed by many “New Age” folks. Yes, we are all one, but we are not the same and some people have a different inner “wiring” than others that is not due to environmental influences or psychological disposition. We’re not talking about serial killers or convicted murderers, but successful charismatic Individuals that can be found in all parts of life, even under Liberals, the New Age and Conscious Movements of today. This has nothing to do about “us vs. them”, but understanding how complex humanity actually is, what we choose to believe/wish for and what we avoid to look at and confront, within and without. Check out these links for more on that:

Too many people hold the idea that psychopaths are essentially killers or convicts. The general public hasn’t been educated to see beyond the social stereotypes to understand that psychopaths can be entrepreneurs, politicians, CEOs and other successful individuals who may never see the inside of a prison.” – Dr. Robert Hare

This is just skimming the surface. There is more information, articles, essays, books, videos and research that examine each of the points I mentioned in-depth, much of it what others and I post on FB all the time. But who will actually make time and look into it? This is the age of fast food information, of twitter and quick Facebook updates, of texting, ADD and short attention spans. People are too busy with all kinds of trivialities in their lives. Most of them can’t be even bothered to THINK and many are too concerned with themselves to keep an eye on the world. I know life is not easy at times and we do need to take care of ourselves. There is much to do, but “having no time” to look into these matters seems to be a quick excuse these days, especially considering how they affect us and the world at large on a daily basis. Truth can’t be spoon-fed, nor will it be on Oprah anytime soon or neatly packaged in a five min. youtube clip. It is up to each of us to make an effort to seek Truth and speak out about it, even if it contradicts with our cherished long-held beliefs.

I had people saying that these “conspiracies” are “unwarranted claims”, but the same people do not look into the evidence and research that is out there and so debunk something they haven’t even looked into sincerely. There is an unconscious psychological protective mechanism that prevents people to face certain truths about the world and essentially about themselves, because the Truth will shatter much of what they believe in and they’d have to adjust their lives accordingly, most of all admitting to themselves that they have been believing in lies. Of course there is also the question of what “others” may think, peer pressure, friends, family, colleagues and so on. People don’t want to “rock the boat”. This is how the “matrix” protects itself and the “sheeple police the sheeple”, so no ones steps out of line. But in the end only Truth will truly set us free and help us to embrace a brighter future for ourselves and our children. Denial and Avoidance will essentially backfire as it is already.

“The scientific discourse misses the fact that the ability to deny is an amazing human phenomenon, a product of sheer complexity of our emotional, linguistic, moral and intellectual lives. Denial is a complex unconscious defense mechanism for coping with guilt, anxiety and other disturbing emotions aroused by reality.” – Stanley Cohen

There is another issue that come with voting in a corrupted system and believing in lies. On a deeper level (metaphysically speaking), by voting and by identifying yourself with a party (left or right) you actually give validity to the corrupt system, two-party set-up and essentially your “permission” to keep it in place. In a sense you actually give up your “free will” by believing in lies (taking the false for the true and the true for the false) and supporting them with your “vote”. It’s how the “matrix” works and keeps itself in place: By the consensus of the people believing in it and supporting it through their actions and beliefs. No matter how good a lie sounds, how good it feels or what “positive” effect it may have (wishful thinking), there are metaphysical repercussions that affect everyone and the whole world “negatively” and actually feed entropy, essentially keeping the false system and control in place by giving it “energy”, regardless if the people who support/believe lies (unknowingly or not) are very loving, positive and mean well. In a sense by voting and buying into the illusion of “free choice” people tend to do more “harm” than any “good”. The exact opposite of what we’re being told (“Rock the Vote!”) and have been conditioned to believe. Obviously it’s not about just not voting and doing nothing. It’s about gaining Knowledge and educating ourselves and see the “fraud” and the lies for what they are. Then we Know what to DO and most importantly what NOT to do. The more people engage in seeking Truth and work together in that regard, the better the chance that reality (as a Whole) will change for the “better”, because we DO create our own reality but it’s not as simple as portrayed in the many distorted New Age “You Create Your Own Reality” bits. This is a topic on its own, getting more into the realm of Esoterica, Quantum Mechanics and Metaphysics. This article touches upon that issue a little bit:Order Out of Chaos

One of the questions I’ve been asked is what do I suggest we DO if we don’t vote?

Well, what an interesting question, which reflects how we’ve been conditioned with basically only two options to choose from (left or right). I’m in no position to tell anyone what to do. I can give some suggestions and food for thought, but eventually the drive to seek to truth and act upon it, living life beyond personal interests but with awareness of the bigger picture needs to come from oneself.

Having said that, here are some suggestions:

1. The most important part is to gain Self-Knowledge and work on oneself to become a better person and “be the change“. I touched upon that in the blog “Know Thyself“. Self-Knowledge and Self-Work is also needed to truly understand the world “out there”. We are all works in process and all there is are lesson, but there needs to be effort to cut through our conditioning. It doesn’t happen by itself. It’s about conscious evolution.

“The change must begin with the human being, not with the outward structure. The human being is confused, the human being is conditioned. He believes, and therefore there is a contradiction in himself. He is really, deeply confused and if he wants to change the social structure, the change from confusion only breeds more confusion. Whereas, if he could bring about clarity within himself, and from that clarity act, then such an action is really a deep psychological revolution. That revolution is absolutely necessary.” ~Jiddu Krishnamurti

2. Educate yourself and seek Information and Knowledge outside the realm of official culture and mainstream media. Question everything! A very good news site I can highly recommend to check out daily is Signs Of the Times . Objective investigative Journalism with contributions from a global network. Probably the best news site on the web.

3. Turn off your TV. As a matter of fact, get rid of it. Create a meditation space there instead. This article gives some insight of how watching TV modifies and programs (literally) our behaviors, desires, beliefs and even is detrimental to your health: Want Better Health? Stop Watching Television…For Good .
Take care of your health with exercise, yoga, qi gong, meditation, massage, breathwork, healthy diet (stay away from gluten, wheat, dairy, sugar), spending time in nature, etc… . The body and mind are one. What you eat and how you live has an effect on how you think and feel.

4. Network and talk about these topics to friends and family or new people you meet. Don’t be afraid to speak up. Awareness is the first step to change, Of course it is not about preaching or forcing one’s view on another, but about raising Awareness and “pushing the envelope”, spreading some “seeds” here and there if appropriate. There is a time to talk and a time to be silent, but not falling into Complacency, Conformity, Self-Importance, Anger or Rage. Meet on a regular basis with a group of like-minded people, so you can get feedback and keep each other “awake”, discussing these issues, creating community based on Truth, Knowledge and essentially Love. Together we’re stronger.

“Cowardice asks the question:”Is it safe”?
Expediency asks the question:”Is it politic”?
Vanity asks the question:”Is it popular?”
But conscience asks the question:”Is it right?”
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular
but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one what is right.”
– Martin Luther King

5. Blogging and using Social Networks to spread awareness and information. Facebook and other sites can be great tools to raise awareness and network beyond just talking about oneself, how much you love life or what you had for breakfast. We can keep each other informed and provide better and more insightful news than the mainstream media.

These are just some suggestions. More can be done and each of us should look deeply into oneself, of how one is being honest with oneself, others and the world at large. Everyone can do something to raise awareness and make this world a better place, each according to his/her unique talents that go beyond immediate self-gratification or self-interest that keeps one in a subjective tunnel vision. However this also entail questioning what we believe to be true or not and not mistake objectivity for negativity or wishful thinking for positivity.

The future is not set in stone. It all depends on each of us. The more people wake up to truth and see the world as it is, not as we “like” it to be, the better for all. Awareness creates change, not simply “positive thinking”, visualizing or meditating on “peace. Providing solutions without first getting a better understanding of ourselves and what is truly going on in the world can be self-defeating in the long run. Discernment is needed and separating truth from lies, within and without. This higher awareness then results in action that will have lasting positive results and not just change of “appearances”.

There is much we’ll have to come to terms with before true change can happen. Let’s not miss the opportunity during this “Time of Transition”. There is work to do, but it’s what we signed up for.

6 responses to “The Illusion of Choice”

[…] support/believe lies (unknowingly or not) are very loving, positive and mean well. In a sense, by voting and buying into the illusion of “free choice” people tend to do more “harm” than any “good” — the exact opposite of what we’re […]

[…] support/believe lies (unknowingly or not) are very loving, positive and mean well. In a sense, by voting and buying into the illusion of “free choice” people tend to do more “harm” than any “good” – the exact opposite […]

[…] it before: “Voting, Cognitive Dissonance and Fear of the Unknown” as well as “The Illusion of Choice“. However, considering that I like some of her past work and we have shown a clip of her talk […]

Words of Wisdom

"There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning."- Jiddu Krishnamurti

"A man must first of all understand certain things.
He has thousands of false ideas and false conceptions,
chiefly about himself, and he must get rid of some of them before beginning to acquire anything new.
Otherwise the new will be built on a wrong foundation
and the result will be worse than before.
To speak the truth is the most difficult thing in the world; one must study a great deal and for a long time in order to speak the truth.
The wish alone is not enough.
To speak the truth one must know what the truth is and what a lie is, and first of all in oneself.
And this nobody wants to know."- G.I. Gurdjieff

"Cowardice asks the question:"Is it safe"?
Expediency asks the question:"Is it politic"?
Vanity asks the question:"Is it popular?"
But conscience asks the question:"Is it right?"
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular
but one must take it because one's conscience tells one what is right."- Martin Luther King

"When we talk about compassion we talk in terms of being kind. But compassion is not so much being kind; it is being creative [enough] to wake a person up" - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoch

"In the end, we return to the question, just how much do you love truth? Do you really love truth or are you just curious? Do you love it enough to rebuild your understanding to conform to a reality that doesn’t fit your current beliefs, and doesn’t feel 120% happy? Do you love truth enough to continue seeking even when it hurts, when it reveals aspects of yourself (or human society, or the universe) that are shocking, complex and disturbing, or humbling, glorious and amazing – or even, when truth is far beyond human mind itself?
Just how much do we love truth? It’s a good question to ask ourselves, I think." - Scott Mandelker

"An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it." - Gandhi

"Anything is one million paths. Therefore, a warrior must always keep in mind that a path is only a path;
if he feels that he should not follow it, he must not stay with it under any conditions. His decision to keep on that path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. He must look at every path closely and deliberately. There is a question that a warrior has to ask, mandatorily: Does this path have a heart?"- Don Juan Matus

"Every man has his own vocation. The talent is the call.
There is one direction in which all space is open to him.
He has faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion.
He is like a ship in a river; he runs against obstructions on every side but one; on that side all obstruction is taken away, and he sweeps serenely over God's depths into an infinite sea.
This talent and this call depend on his organization, or the mode in which a general soul incarnates in him. He inclines to do something which is easy to him, and good when it is done, but which no other man can do.
He has no rival.
For the more truly he consults his own powers, the more difference will his work exhibit from the work of any other. When he is true and faithful, his ambition is exactly proportional to his powers.
By doing his work he makes the need felt which only he can supply."- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."
- Carl Gustav Jung

"Man must have results, real results, in his inner and outer life. I do not mean the results which modern people strive after in their attempts at self-development. These are not results, but only rearrangements of psychic material, a process the Buddhists call *samsara* and which our Holy Bible calls *dust*." - Jacob Needleman

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."- Jiddu Krishnamurti

"Life experiences reflect how one interacts with God. Those who are asleep are those of little faith in terms of their interaction with the creation. Some people think that the world exists for them to overcome or ignore or shut out. For those individuals, the worlds will cease. They will become exactly what they give to life. They will become merely a dream in the "past." People who pay strict attention to objective reality right and left, become the reality of the "Future."" - The Cassiopaeans

"The scientific discourse misses the fact that the ability to deny is an amazing human phenomenon, a product of sheer complexity of our emotional, linguistic, moral and intellectual lives. Denial is a complex unconscious defense mechanism for coping with guilt, anxiety and other disturbing emotions aroused by reality." - Stanley Cohen

"For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are. - Niccolo Machiavelli

"Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm. ­ But the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it. Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves."- T. S. Eliot

"Too many people hold the idea that psychopaths are essentially killers or convicts. The general public hasn't been educated to see beyond the social stereotypes to understand that psychopaths can be entrepreneurs, politicians, CEOs and other successful individuals who may never see the inside of a prison." - Dr. Robert Hare

"Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead." - Arundhati Roy

"Comfort, the prevailing word for Progress, in its many different aspects and to varying degrees, forms a sufficient aim for the majority of civilized men of our era. Under these conditions of our times, man is only open to divine values in carefully measured doses, kept within limits so that they do not trouble his bourgeois conscience or threaten the material well-being he has acquired." - Boris Mouravieff

"There is an almost sensual longing for communion with others who have a larger vision. The immense fulfillment of the friendships between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality almost impossible to describe." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

"The Truth is not Arbitrary or a Matter of Opinion, but can be Investigated, and Those who Earnestly Search for the Truth will Find It. The Truth is Hidden to the Blind, but he who has the Mental Eye Sees the Truth." - Buddha - The Three Personalities of Buddha, XCVIII

"Do you wish to know God? Learn first to know yourself." - Abba Evagrius the Monk

"To awaken is difficult to do, as sapiens is submitted to a cosmic hypnotic influence which is the universal energy of creation; and if this were not enough, each individual, when he does not like the reality of life or is not satisfied with himself, dreams of himself and the world in a manner ideal for himself." - John Baines

"For the total development of the human being, solitude as a means of cultivating sensitivity becomes a necessity. One has to know what it means to be alone, what it is to meditate, what it is to die; and the implications of solitude, of meditation, of death, can be known only by seeking them out. These implications cannot be taught, they must be learned." - Krishnamurti

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."- Martin Luther King Jr.

"In order to understand the interrelation of truth and falsehood in life, a man must understand falsehood in himself, the constant incessant lies he tells himself." - G.I. Gurdjieff

"To search means, first, I need Being, Truth; second, I do not know where to find it; and third, an action takes place that is not based on fantasies of certainty— while at the same time a waiting takes place that is rooted not in wishful thinking but in a deep sense of urgency." - Jacob Needleman

"Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief." - Frantz Fanon

"If the masses started to accept UFOs, it would profoundly affect their attitude towards life, politics, everything. It would threaten the status quo. Whenever people come to realize that there are larger considerations than their own petty lives, they are ripe to make radical changes on a personal level, which would eventually lead to a political revolution in society as a whole" - John Lennon

"Those conspiracies that are too incredible to be believed, are by the same right, those which most often succeed. Only the small secrets need to be protected. The large ones are kept secret by public incredulity." - Marshall McLuhan

"When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do." - William Blake

"Two things can get people to make efforts: if people want to get something, or if they want to get rid of something. Only, in ordinary conditions, without knowledge, people do not know what they can get rid of or what they can gain." - P.D. Ouspensky

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” - 'Lord of the Rings'

"The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him, the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free" - Aldous Huxley

"It wasn't the world being round that agitated people, but that the world wasn't flat. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic." - Dresden James

"According to the Great Work, a friend is one in which you support and encourage the other's expansion in either the mind or the spirit.Otherwise they are people you are sentimentally attached to it because they would eat cinnamon bun with you. And they will say 'hee, hee, hee' aren't we having fun". Drug addicts do the same thing. Drug addicts want to be around people who will support them and be away from real friends. Do you know why? Because it feels good. To be a memeber of a mystery school can be catastrophic to the ego and to the ego's habits and to the propensity for mediocrity. No one ever cried striving for excellence. They only cried when their mediocrity was taken away from them and pointed out to them." - Jerhoam

"The human heart cries out for help; the human soul implores us for deliverance; but we do not heed their cries, for we neither hear nor understand. But the man who hears and understands we call mad, and flee from him."- Khalil Gibran

"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." - George Bernard Shaw

"So preserve yourselves, my brothers, from the calamities of this place, for distinguishing it is extremely difficult! Souls find it sweet, and then within it they are duped, since they become completely enamored of it." - Sufi proverb

"If a man gives way to all his desires, or panders to them, there will be no inner struggle in him, no 'friction,' no fire. But if, for the sake of attaining a definite aim, he struggles with the desires that hinder him, he will then create a fire which will gradually transform his inner world into a single whole." - P.D. Ouspensky

"The ultimate tyranny in a society is not control by martial law. It is control by the psychological manipulation of consciousness, through which reality is defined so that those who exist within it do not even realize that they are in prison. They do not even realize that there is something outside of where they exist."- 'Bringers of the Dawn'

"Every time a man sets himself to learn, he has to labor as hard as anyone can, and the limits of his learning are determined by his own nature. Therefore, there is no point in talking about knowledge. Fear of knowledge is natural; all of us experience it, and there is nothing we can do about it. But no matter how frightening learning is, it's more terrible to think of a man without knowledge."- Don Juan Matus

"The problem is not the term "love", the problem is the interpretation of the term. Those on third density have a tendency to confuse the issue horribly. After all, they confuse many things as love. When the actual definition of love as you know it is not correct either. It is not necessarily a feeling that one has that can also be interpreted as an emotion, but rather, as we have told you before, the essence of light which is knowledge is love, and this has been corrupted when it is said that love leads to illumination.
Love is Light is Knowledge. Love makes no sense when common definitions are used as they are in your environment.
To love you must know.
And to know is to have light.
And to have light is to love.
And to have knowledge is to love."- The Cassiopaeans

"In spiritual matters, knowledge is dependent upon being; as we are, so we know." - Aldous Huxley

"Development cannot begin on the basis of lying to oneself, or deceiving oneself. Man must know what he has and what he has not. It means that he must realize that he does not possess the qualities already described, which he ascribes to himself; that is, capacity to do, individuality, or unity, permanent Ego, and in addition Consciousness and Will. It is necessary for man to know this, because as long as he believes that he possesses these qualities he will not make right effort to acquire them, exactly as a man will not buy costly things and pay a high price for them, if he thinks that he already possesses them." - Ouspensky, The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution

"The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside. " - Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind

“That man will be very fortunate who, led by some unusual inner light, shall be able to turn from the dark and confused labyrinths within which he might have gone forever wandering with the crowd and becoming ever more entangled. Therefore, in the matter of philosophy, I consider it not very sound to judge a man's opinion by the number of his followers.” – Galileo Galilei, The Assayer (1623)

"Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses." -Plato

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein

‎"The elixir of life is truth itself, the preserver of all things. The wise man's stone is science, that can work all wonders and solve all riddles of the mortal sphere. The universal medicine is wisdom, the only cure for ignorance, which is the universal disease." -Manly P. Hall

"Real compassion kicks butt and takes names and is not pleasant on certain days. If you are not ready for this FIRE, then find a new-age, sweetness and light, perpetually smiling teacher and learn to relabel your ego with spiritual sounding terms. But, stay away from those who practice REAL COMPASSION, because they will fry your ass, my friend." - Ken Wilber

"Whether we use psychological or esoteric terminology, the basic fact remains the same: human beings do not earn free will except through self-discovery, and they do not attempt self-discovery until things become so painful that they have no other choice. If the individual makes no effort to expand his consciousness so that he can understand the nature of his total unfoldment and can begin to coorperate with it, then it will seem that he his the pawn of fate and has no control over his life. He can only earn his freedom by learning about himself so that he can understand what value a particular experience has for the development of his whole self."
- Liz Green

"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end." - Unknown

"Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience." - Howard Zinn

"All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome." - George Orwell

"Every age of license is followed by an age of authoritarianism. During these cycles of changing social attitudes academic liberty – freedom of thought – ebbs and flows on a tide of intolerance. We are again living in a time of rising academic intolerance in which important new discoveries in physics, medicine, and biology are being ridiculed and rejected for reasons that are not scientific."
- Richard Milton

"One phenomenon all ponerogenic groups and associations have in common is the fact that their members lose (or have already lost) the capacity to perceive pathological individuals as such, interpreting their behavior in fascinated, heroic, or melodramatic ways."
- Andrew M. Lobaczewski